Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 298 Watching the Fun

That happened almost instantly.

Just as Li Wei reached out and lifted the box, a huge black shadow suddenly leaped down from the roof behind him. At the same time, the girl who had been trapped under the box gripped her dagger and stabbed at Li Wei's chest, while the woman beside him pulled out a pistol from her bosom and aimed it at Li Wei's head.

This happened in almost a second.

And Li Wei acted at that very moment.

He released his grip on the box, which then crashed down onto the girl. At the same time, Li Wei flicked his right hand, and the cane he had been using for support transformed into a black, icy serpent, coiling around the woman's wrist. Then, with a flash of cold light, the woman's right hand, which was holding the gun, flew into the air amidst splattering blood.

Then Li Wei calmly turned around, raised his left hand—and the Punisher appeared in his hand.

At the same time, the dark figure pounced on Li Wei.

Then, Li Wei pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

The shadowy figure's head exploded in an instant, while Li Wei calmly turned his body to the side, like a gentleman making way for others, letting the out-of-control shadowy figure brush past him and crash heavily into the cargo box.

Before the girl, who had been knocked over by the cargo box that Li Wei had put down, could get up, she was hit again by the dark figure and fell to the ground without uttering a sound.

The whole process happened in the blink of an eye. By the time Li Wei lowered his gun, the alley had returned to its original silence.

"The Pasman family? That's quite professional."

Li Wei lowered his gun and looked at the streetwalker with a smile. The woman was also tightly gripping her bleeding right wrist, gritting her teeth, and staring at Li Wei.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Li Wei looked at the woman and asked her a question, but she just stared at him and then moved her left hand—!
"Snapped."

The woman's head exploded completely, and then she collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Li Wei put down his gun, shrugged, and walked to the woman's body. He nudged her left hand with his foot, flipped it open, and saw a gun, no bigger than his palm, lying on the ground.

"Wow, they're really professional."

Li Wei made a comment, then reached out and picked up the gun, fiddled with it for a while, and then put it in his pocket.

This can be taken back to show the old butler as a local specialty. This thing looks like something a spy or assassin would use. I didn't expect these gangsters to actually have some real stuff.

"Tsk tsk tsk, compared to those bastards in the lower city, this place is indeed different."

Recalling the gangs he'd dealt with in the lower city, Li Wei couldn't help but sigh; they were still too crude. Look at this side, a professional assassination right off the bat, but the acting was rather subpar. Of course, even if she acted well, it wouldn't matter; Li Wei's puppet bird was constantly hovering above, acting as a drone, and he'd know immediately what was around him.

In fact, you can tell how powerful any organization is by whether it has a formalized process.

The kind of thugs who act tough on the street like they often do in movies and games, always looking for trouble and saying things like "You blind bastard, you bumped into me and I'll pay you back," are basically just lowlifes.

Well-known groups like the Mafia have long since moved beyond the old ways of thugs coming to people's homes to vandalize, rob, and throw paint. Now they come to people's homes politely, ask for money politely, and if you don't give them any, they don't even say a harsh word, they just turn around and leave politely.

Then the next day you find that your family member has either broken a hand or become lame, and when the other party comes to your door again, they are still politely asking for money, as if nothing has happened.

In Li Wei's view, the gangs in this place were a bit like the Mafia. They did business openly, but they also had a lot of underhanded tricks, though they didn't do it openly.

But this also shows that they are afraid of trouble.

The principle that a small boat is easier to turn around applies to both the legitimate and criminal worlds. The more organized and dynamic a gang is, the less likely it is to cause big trouble. Because a large gang has many members, and with more members comes pressure. You not only have to take care of yourself, but also your brothers.

Unlike those who work alone, who think, "I'll mess with one person or a whole group, I'm broke anyway, and I'm just a worthless life," he does whatever he wants, not caring how much trouble he causes. He wouldn't care even if it were the end of the world; he'd be happy to drag so many people down with him.

These families are the same; if it's not their territory, they'll fight in the streets, kill, set fires—they'll do anything.

But if it's your own turf, you can't do that anymore, because it's your own land, so there have to be rules...

Ha ha.

Li Wei collected his thoughts, ignoring the woman, and walked to the dark figure next to the cargo box, beginning a careful inspection.

The lighting in the alley wasn't very good, but you could still see fairly clearly.

Upon closer inspection... well, it does look quite like a person.

Well, strictly speaking, this shadowy figure is indeed a person. It has arms and legs, a body, and a head; on the surface, it certainly looks like a person.

However, upon closer inspection, there seems to be a problem.

Although this guy was a human, he looked much taller than average, almost two meters tall. Not only that, but from the jaw of his shattered skull, Li Wei could see a mouthful of sharp teeth, like those of a dog or wolf. In addition, his hands were much larger than those of an ordinary person, and his fingers and toes were obviously deformed, looking like the claws of a wild beast.

Not only that, but it also has a lot of body hair, which almost completely covers its entire body.

Hmm... If I hadn't aimed for the head, I should at least have been able to see what this guy looked like.

At least Li Wei could be certain that this was not an ordinary human being.

Could this be the monster from the legends?

Li Wei stared at the monster before him, lost in thought. Just then, the girl who had been trapped under the box behind him secretly climbed out. Seeing Li Wei with his back to her, a fierce glint flashed in her eyes, and she immediately drew a dagger from her waist and stabbed it towards Li Wei's back.

Then, a flash of light appeared before her eyes.

"boom."

Li Wei stared at the monster, not even glancing at the girl's corpse behind him. He simply recalled the Punisher, then carefully examined the monster's soles before standing up.

"Alright, let's go find a place."

Li Wei originally wanted to capture a prisoner and have him lead the way, but now it seems that the assassins hired by the Pasman family are quite professional, and he probably doesn't expect them to obey him.

Not to mention, people can lie.

But footprints will not.

Li Wei identified the monster's tracks and began searching in those directions. He didn't look at the tracks of the two assassins, because humans could easily go to all sorts of places. But this monster was different; clearly, its hairy body and over two meters tall made it unsuitable for taking a dog for a walk.

Therefore, in Li Wei's view, this monster should be like a police dog in the police station, kept in a kennel on weekdays and brought out only when needed.

If that's the case, then the monster's range of movement should be quite limited.

With this in mind, Li Wei followed the monster's tracks again and again—well, it was indeed inconvenient to look for things at night, but fortunately Li Wei had a puppet cat that could see in the night. He basically just controlled the puppet cat to climb and jump around, and it was easy to find the monster's tracks.

After all, this guy's feet are deformed, and he doesn't wear shoes, so he's much easier to find.

In just one or two hours, Li Wei followed the monster's tracks and found a place...

"zoo?"

Li Wei looked at the sign above with a strange expression, speechless.

In this era, zoos were still a novelty. Circuses, on the other hand, were more familiar to everyone. They could easily bring all sorts of exotic animals, set up an arena in a public square, and people could watch the circus performances and see the strange creatures—it was quite entertaining. Ordinary zoos weren't viable at this time; most places felt they were unnecessary.

They're just animals. You can see them by hunting if you have nothing better to do. Why go to the zoo?
There is a zoo in Chongqing, but it's not the kind of zoo for entertainment. Li Wei heard that it's used exclusively by the biology department of the Royal Academy of Sciences. It's mainly used to raise animals that they find in other places and bring back, and to earn some money from ticket sales as a supplement.

It's more for research than recreation, but there's no other way, since raising animals requires a lot of space. Common animals like cows, horses, and sheep need large pastures. Animals brought back from outside have even higher requirements, but the Royal Graduate School can't possibly open up such a large area just for the biology department, otherwise other departments would definitely object.

So the biology department simply pooled their money to build a zoo—although the biology department was poor, it was still richer than the archaeology department.

After all, many wealthy people like those strange and unusual animals, and it's easier for them to get sponsorships than for the archaeology department.

Thinking about it carefully, this zoo really is a place where monsters are hidden. Take that monster from earlier, for example. If you took off its cloak, stuffed it into a cage, and said it was a newly discovered animal, no one would be able to say anything wrong with it.

but………

"There's something wrong with this zoo."

Li Wei used the puppet bird to conduct some reconnaissance and found that the situation was somewhat unexpected. Although it was clearly a zoo, the feedback from the [Soul Vision] indicated that there were more people than animals here.

Could this place, ostensibly a zoo, actually be a stronghold of the Pasman family?
Thinking of this, Li Wei's eyes flickered, and then a smile appeared on his face.

He has an idea.

Since these people are so afraid of making a big fuss, then I might as well make a big fuss myself. At that point, I'll see if these so-called families can still sit still.

(End of this chapter)